Writing Dangers: Shiny New Idea Syndrome

So that wonderfully fantastic thing happened again when one
of you amazing people suggested a topic that I could have sworn I’d covered, except it turns out I’d only ever touched on,
because when talking about discipline, one of you lovely commenters (you know
who you are—thank you!) posted this:

“I don’t know if you’ve ever discussed this already, but one
thing I thought might be interesting, is your views on when to start new
stories. Such as, you are working on one novel and have another great idea. Do
you keep finishing the first one and then work on the second even if your
enthusiasm dips or do you start the new one immediately and use that enthusiasm
to your advantage?”

I think this is a fantastic question because there is little
doubt in my mind that most writers (if not all) experience what I like to call
Shiny New Idea Syndrome at one point or another throughout their writing
careers.

For those of you who aren’t acquainted with this beast, Shiny New Idea
Syndrome occurs when you’re in the middle of a WIP, and suddenly—BAM—a brand
new tantalizing idea sneak-attacks you and starts whispering things like, don’t you want to write me? or hey, hey, why won’t you take a break from
that other story and try something new? You know you want to, and makes you
wonder why you’re even bothering with this other
WIP when that Shiny New Idea is so much better.

Once Shiny New Idea Syndrome has attacked, a writer is faced
with two options: continue with the first WIP and remember the Shiny New Idea
for a later WIP, or put the first WIP aside and start writing the Shiny New
Idea immediately.

As our fantabulous commenter mentioned, some writers worry
that if they continue with their first WIP and leave the Shiny New Idea for
later, their enthusiasm for the new project will fade, making it more difficult
to write later on. And while this is a perfectly legitimate fear because yes,
that does tend to happen with some
ideas, I truly believe that if when the time comes to sit down and put the
Shiny New Idea to paper, you’re no longer excited about the project, then it
probably wasn’t a strong enough idea to be written into a novel in the first
place.

I’ve
talked about this before, so I’m not going to go into detail again, but in
short, writing a novel is a very involved process that takes huge amounts of
time, and if you can’t maintain enthusiasm for a new project idea while
finishing a WIP you already started, then chances are you would have found it
difficult to maintain that enthusiasm through the long months (or years) it
takes to write and revise and revise and rewrite and edit a novel.

If, however, you do
finish the first project and the Shiny New Idea is still there, tapping you on
the shoulder and demanding that you get to work, then I’d say that’s a pretty
good sign that you have something good on your hands. Something that isn’t just
a fleeting temptation. An actual, lasting novel-worthy idea.

Because the real danger of the Shiny New Idea Syndrome is
this: oftentimes writers find when they switch projects to satisfy a Shiny New
Idea, part-way through that new WIP another
Shiny New Idea comes along that’s so
much better than the one you’re working on now, and before you know it you’ve
started four new projects and haven’t finished anything. I hear about this from writers all the time,
especially new writers who haven’t finished a project before because Shiny New
Idea Syndrome is a sneaky little thing.

That’s not to say that Shiny New Idea Syndrome doesn’t ever
give you good ideas—it can certainly drop a perfectly sound novel-worthy idea
into your mind. But I truly believe the first test of its novel worthiness is
whether or not you can sustain that new-idea enthusiasm even if you don’t
immediately begin writing it.

Because a truly novel-worthy idea will still be there
waiting for you when you finish your first project.

So that’s my take on Shiny New Idea Syndrome. What do you think? If a
Shiny New Idea hit you while working on a project, would you continue with the
first project or start working on the new one? Have you ever experienced Shiny
New Idea Syndrome?

53 comments:

RaiscaraAvalon
said...

Totally guilty of switching and writing Shiny New Idea, at least most of the time. It gives me a break from whatever project I have going on at the time. Then again, I often have MANY projects going on. Sometimes I just write the idea down and keep working on the current project, especially if it works into the series I'm working on now. :)

Once ONCE has Shiny New Idea Syndrome given me an actual novel-worthy idea (and when it hit me, I'd just finished the first draft of another WIP, so the timing wasn't as terrible as usual). Other than that once instance, it's had me start more than a couple WIPs that now sit very quietly on my hard drive. Heh heh...

Actually, I think it's interesting that you're able to work on many projects at once. I've tried that...but I need to focus on one project at a time or I have a weird tendency of losing interest in both. Not entirely sure why...

I have shelved two projects in the last 6 months. And yes - the projects I jumped to were shiny new ideas. But I try not to let that be the ONLY reason I jump projects. In the case of the first project the tone was all wrong - so I set it aside for distance. The second I was totally stalled out on.

But I realize the danger of falling into the shiny idea trap. So I am treading carefully :)

I tend to plan a lot and work a lot on the idea and so when I sit down to write, I have everything. Thus, writing the novel takes less than a month. I don't usually get new ideas in the middle of writing. if I do get a new idea now, I just start the plotting andmaking notes until I can get to it again. I don't always start the writing thing as I get turned off.

Oh, I would recommend prompt-writing to anyone -- not only does it hone your skill, but it gives Shiny New Ideas a playground. When you bottle them up, some of them turn toxic.

It's therapeutic.

Also, some story premises don't seem so good at first, because one may not be ready for them. It's always a good thing to write them down -- you never know, there might be a gold nugget hidden under the sludge somewhere.

So just out of curiosity, do you actually do your own prompts or do you just post them online for other writers? Also, I agree--writing down Shiny New Ideas is a great strategy, because although you might decide most of them weren't worth writing, you might still find a few in there worthy of exploration.

So you're a definite plotter, then. :) How long does it usually take for you to plot out your idea (before you start writing)? I've also done what you mentioned where I write down and start beginning stages of plotting for Shiny Ideas, but like you, I don't always actually write the draft, either. Sometimes just brainstorming can give you a pretty good idea as to whether or not the new-story enthusiasm is going to stick around.

Shiny new idea syndrome affects startups, artists and pretty much anyone who does anything creative I think. The hardest part for me has been to say "No!" to all the other ideas because I realized my problem wasn't the idea but the execution. I just didn't have the patience to see something through and that's where the true reward lies. I have to keep telling myself this though.

You're right that it takes patience to see something through all the way, and I absolutely agree that there's a real reward in finishing. There are few things that are more satisfying that seeing your finished work. :)

The prompts I post online are intended for others, to do with as they will. I explicitly waive copyright.

The ideas I want to explore for myself usually live in my head for a long time until I commit them to the page. I mull them over, sometimes for months. I don't use prompts for personal ends, you know, to record ideas. It's more free-form than that. That would rob me of the exploratory freedom of incoherence, which can open doors you didn't even know were there.

Oh yes, I'm well acquainted with that syndrome as well. It can be insanely tempting, but remember the more time you spend away from the WIP you want to revise, the better you'll be able to complete revisions!

I seem to suffer from this syndrome daily and have to fight it off with a stick! It is so hard to resist those new ideas and I have to tell myself daily to just stick with the current WIP and not get off track yet again!

One technique to help handle it is to write down the Shiny Ideas for later use--then when you've finished your first WIP and it's time to start another, you have a plethora of ideas all ready for the taking. :)

I mentioned this because I got hit by it recently and I've been wondering whether to chase the new idea. I'm a chapter or two away from finishing the 1st draft of my next novel and I got a great idea for a novel that I am sure will be my iconic masterpiece of awesome, but I've resisted so far. I satisfied myself by planning it in Evernote and writing down ideas instead of writing the novel. So it will be there when I get back. Thanks for today's post!

I have always suffered from this syndrome in a scary prolonged form. I come up with a shiny new idea born of things that I secretly know either won't work or is too much like another story etc...but I go on to begin plotting it out anyway! And I continue to torture myself with it for some reason, thinking it may turn out well but it ends up causing me heartache and wasted time... I am getting better though. :) Great article! Thank you for this. I enjoy these a lot. :D~Author Steven

Sure thing, Matthew! It was a great post idea. Writing down your ideas and saving them for later is a great way to satisfy both the temptation to work on the Shiny New Idea now and still finish your current work. I wish you the best of luck!

I'm currently feeling the allure of an amazing new short story idea that promises to distract me from my novel this week. I think it's different, though, because they're two different mediums, one by definition more bite-sized than the other, at least as far as rough drafts are concerned.

I've paused the current manuscript before when I had reached a tough spot to work on a short story instead, and ended up with a winner. Sometimes taking a break to work on something different can be a real self-esteem booster as well, which is important, I think.

I am about 80% with a WIP and bam the Shiny New Idea hit me. Actually it was more like. "Contemporary is really big right now, maybe you should write a contemporary." That stupid little voice annoyed me until I wrote down the idea story, jotted a few notes to keep it fresh for after I'm done. Like you said, if it's supposed to be then it will still be there when I'm done with the current one. Thank you for the confirmation!

I keep a file on Scrivener that has all the interrupting children, er, Shiny New Ideas in it. When they pop up I just open the file, give it spot and type in whatever thoughts I have - then (very important step here) - close the file and immediately go back to the WIP. This keeps the idea locked down, nothing lost and forced to compete with the other SNI's when I'm looking for a new story to tell.

Right on target with the idea that if an SNI cannot wait then it probably isn't all that strong. Great post, Ava :)

I don't often write short stories, so I haven't experienced that myself, but I suppose it could be different if it's a short story idea temporarily distracting you versus a Shiny New WIP Idea that takes significantly longer and more work to complete. And if taking a break to complete a short story turns out to be a self-esteem booster, well, that sounds pretty good to me as long as you aren't bombarded with a bunch of new short story ideas that could distract you for longer than you might like.

Sure thing, Hildie! I usually caution against writing in a particular genre just because it's "big" at the moment--if you want to write in that genre because you're really drawn to it or have a fantastic idea, by all means go for it, but as it takes years for a novel to go from first draft to published, writing to trends doesn't tend to pan out well. Just my thoughts. :)

Either way, after you finish your first WIP if you still want to write that contemporary story, I'd say go for it. ^_^

Interrupting children...I like it. Very amusing. Keeping a file to record all of your Shiny New Ideas is a great strategy. Not only does it allow you to focus on your current WIP, but it can sometimes be beneficial to have all of your ideas in one place so you can look at them together when you're ready to start a new story.

It kind of really depends. I tend to take a few weeks to 2 months thinking about during which I tend to generate a lot of scribbling. Then a week or two writing outlines and chapter summary sheets. sometimes I write short profiles for characters just so I know ages and stuff like that.

Yeah I have plotted for novels I never started writing. They just didn't work. That's one of the main benefits of plotting imo. No wasted hard work lol!

I tend to believe that when it comes to writing, no amount of work is a waste, even if you end up not completing the story because I think we learn from every bit of writing we do. That being said, if you spend two months plotting a story, that seems like a lot of hard work. If you don't go with it I wouldn't say it's wasted, but it's work nonetheless!

It depends. I think SNIS can be good if you get stumped in your current WIP. I don't believe in writer's block, because there's always some other scene or book to write. I write the characters that speak to me the loudest at the time, and I like having options of different things to write depending on my mood. I worked on all three books of my first series simultaneously and managed to get them written, edited and published in under three years, with very little down time. I'm in the middle of five books right now, and the only thing that worries me is that it's just taking that much longer to finish them... but I don't want to rush things, nor do I want to 'take time off' just because I'm not inspired by one particular story that day, or force myself to write a scene that I'm not 'feeling' at the time. I put my attention where my passion is. I write in the moment. It helps me 'be' the characters better, and to me, that provides a much better- much truer- story in the end. Typically, once I start in one book, I stick with it for weeks at a time because the characters or plots suck me in and hold my interest. But I always miss the other ones, and visit those characters regularly when they invite me in.

I think for writers like yourself who can work on multiple projects at a time, Shiny New Ideas can be useful as long as they pertain to your various projects (or are strong enough to merit starting a new project). As I'm a writer who can only focus on one project at a time, it's not a practical method for me, however I could see the possible usefulness.

And then there's the shiny new idea that is hitting you in between WsIP and yet your procrastinating self won't start writing it (for a grand litany of other self-critical reasons). Must sit and write. Go.

The only time I ever pay attention to Shiny New Ideas is when it's Nanowrimo or Camp Nanowrimo time, and I'm looking for an idea that may not be the greatest thing since Key Lime Pie, but is still worth 50,000 words and a month of writing time. But if it's not one of those times of the year, then it goes straight into the Writing Journal of Unused Ideas just like its fifty other Shiny New Idea Bretheren.

I suffer from Shiny New Idea Syndrome constantly and I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees it for what it is. I know a lot of people have a hard time coming up with ideas, so when they get a new one it can be distracting. Ultimately it's important to keep your focus, otherwise you'll never get anything done. The worst part is that these new ideas wear the guise of productivity, when in actuality it is possible to procrastinate from writing...by writing!

I agree entirely about focus. It can be difficult and distracting when you get Shiny New Ideas often, but if you want to finish writing a WIP, you have to keep moving forward, or else risk getting distracted repeatedly. I do know of some writers who are able to work on more than one WIP at the same time (which I find highly impressive, when done efficiently), but even that requires focus on those WIPs, rather than starting a new one every time a Shiny New Idea appears.